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Monday, 4 April 2011

C is for... Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie Bucket dreams of a chocolate bar that he doesn’t have to share with his elderly relatives. When growing up I thought the same about the green chocolate triangles in a box of Quality Street, so I feel his pain here. Luckily he wins a golden ticket to visit Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, along with four other children, and here is where the fun begins.

Willy Wonka is bonkers. A nice bloke, but bonkers all the same. He has devised a test of chocolate-resisting morality to find out which child will inherit his factory. Ye Gods, that’s just fiendish. I like to think my morals are good but when it comes down to morals or chocolate, let’s face it – would I steal a squirrel?

It’s a tough call. However, I don’t like nutty chocolate and I wouldn’t risk the prize for chewing gum, nor would I care to be sent through the air to appear on TV. But the chocolate river in a room full of chocolate and spun sugar flowers? I fear my name might be Jayne Gloop.

The manic energy of Roald Dahl’s writing, and the pleasure he takes in detailing the fate of greedy and selfish children, leaks through to the reader. I like the way he draws attention to the bad behaviour of the parents as well - even as a child you can see that the fate of being turned into a giant blueberry doesn’t just spring from nowhere. But it's the chocolate factory itself, with its secrets, hundreds of rooms, and bedazzling recipes, which is the real star – in a way Charlie, nice and inoffensive as he is, is incidental.

Chocolate fact one: Cadbury’s Twirl bars rock my socks. Chocolate fact two: Adding fruit or nuts to chocolate is just wrong on all levels Chocolate fact three: I still go to the corner shop just to buy chocolate. Chocolate fact four: I don’t like white chocolate – it has to be milk, or plain at a push. Chocolate fact five: In chocolate selling shops you will generally find me hovering beside the assistant offering free samples.

Dahl finds a bit of everyones imagination in his work. I am hardly ever without some form of chocolate. My daughter came the other day and asked where it all was, she needed some bad.Must be heriditery!

I LOVE this movie, especially when Willie Wonka says, "But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wished for . . . He lived happily ever after." That's a paraphrase, but I think it's close.I didn't have the opportunity to read the book as a kid, but it's on my TBR list for sure now!

I have a friend in Leeds send me Cadbury DairyMilk Turkish every few months or so. :) I loved this book as a kid; didn't care for the Gene Wilder version a whole lot, but I did love the room where everything is edible. I did like the new version with Johnny Depp (because, let's face it, the man can do mad like no one else!). "Everything in this room is edible. Even I am edible. But that, dear children, is called cannibalism and is in fact frowned upon in most societies." LOL

There's a shop/cafe in Bruges in Belgium which we named 'Death by Chocolate' - they serve hot milk with jugs of melted chocolate to pour into the milk, and you also get a plate piled high with yummy Belgium Chocolates. We definitely thought we'd died and gone to heaven.http://paulamartinromances.blogspot.com

I love Butlers Chocolate Cafes here in Dublin, where you get a chocolate of your choice with your coffee. Yum!Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a classic, love it!I do like nuts in chocolate, but can't stand chocolate and orange together (long story!).

Jayne Ferst

In the 1970s a girl was born and sent to school for a crime she didn't commit. That girl finally escaped from a dull comprehensive into the lost artistic underground. Today, still wanted by her job, she survives as a writer of fortune. If you need a story, if no one else can help, and if you remember the A Team theme tune, maybe you can sing it with me.